


new home, same green

by thefigureinthecorner



Category: The Bright Sessions (Podcast)
Genre: Acrophobia, Caleb Michaels has a fear of heights, Fear of Heights, Fluff, M/M, Moving In Together
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-28
Updated: 2020-10-28
Packaged: 2021-03-08 19:27:37
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 906
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27241918
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thefigureinthecorner/pseuds/thefigureinthecorner
Summary: “Caleb.”“Yes?”“Are you scared of heights?”Caleb can’t stop his grimace at that question. “That obvious?”Or: Caleb discovers that moving into a new home is incredibly stressful when stepladders get involved.
Relationships: Adam Hayes/Caleb Michaels
Comments: 3
Kudos: 43





	new home, same green

**Author's Note:**

> Briggon mentioned in the tumblr Q&A from earlier today that he was scared of heights and I immediately went “cool okay so Caleb—“
> 
> anyway Briggon if you’re reading this then this is for you ig

“Hey Caleb, I think you’re gonna have to get the ceiling edges, my arms are still too short here. I swear, it’s like they made the kitchen ceiling just  _ slightly  _ taller than the rest of the house just to fuck with me.”

Adam climbs down from the stepladder, paintbrush in hand. Caleb grins.

“Oh my god, I knew you were short but are you seriously  _ that  _ short?” His voice is light and teasing and he rests an elbow on Adam’s shoulder as he says it.”

“Oh, shut up. No but seriously, you’re gonna have to get up there, I’m just—“ Adam climbs back up the stepladder and reaches his arm out, flailing the paintbrush a couple of inches away from the kitchen ceiling— “just  _ slightly  _ too short.” He furrows his brow. “I mean maybe if I just…”

Caleb feels himself tense up as Adam starts to step up to the top non-step step of the stepladder. “No wait, don’t, that’s not—“

Adam paused. “What?”

“That’s not an actual step, you could fall.”

“Huh. Well then why the hell is it there then?” Adam climbs back down again.

“It’s supposed to be used as a shelf. For like, paint trays and stuff.” Caleb pauses. “How are you almost thirty and you still never learned that?”

Adam shrugs, ignoring the jab because yeah, okay, fair. “I dunno, I’ve just never really been Adam the handyman guy I guess. Every time we needed something fixed around our house growing up we’d either call someone to fix it or my dad would claim he knew how to fix it, mess it up worse somehow, and then we’d end up calling someone to fix it.”

“Wait— worse?”

“He fell through the ceiling one time trying to fix something in the attic. Literally I visited home one weekend and there was a fucking hole in the ceiling and my mom was like ‘oh yeah, I forgot to tell you, your dad fell through the ceiling.’”

“Holy shit?”

“Yup. Anyway, stepladder’s all yours. Don’t fall while I’m unpacking the rest of the bedroom boxes. I’d hate for you to have to spend your first night in our new apartment at a hospital.”

“Oh ha, ha.” Caleb tenses again as the reality sinks in. “I, uh— are you really sure you can’t reach? I think we might still have some heavy boxes in the truck or something, I should get those—“

“Caleb, you literally just saw me try to reach it?”

Caleb backtracks. “Oh, yeah, right, duh. Um, what if we just.” He picks up the long roller arm they’d used to paint the rest of the kitchen ceiling. “Try using this? Or—”

“Caleb.”

“Yes?”

“Are you scared of heights?”

Caleb can’t stop his grimace at that question. “That obvious?”

“I mean, you’re acting pretty weird about having to use the stepladder, so yeah.” Adam grins. “I can’t believe you’re scared of heights though, oh my god, you’re like, over a foot taller than me.”

“Hey, you’re tiny and you’re claustrophobic, I don’t think you really get to judge me on that one.”

“Touché.”

Caleb sighs. “If this is the only option we have, I can try to…” he takes the paintbrush from Adam’s hand and climbs up the first couple steps of the stepladder—

—And immediately feels like the world is spinning around him when he looks down to get some fresh paint on the brush.

“Okay, nope. Nope nope nope.” He climbs back down and lies down on the floor, the protective plastic covering crinkling loudly under his back. “Shit.”

“Caleb?” Adam crouches next to him. “You good?”

“Yeah, I’m fine, I just uh. Vertigo, I guess.” He takes a deep breath. “I’m just gonna stay here for a bit I think.”

“You know you don’t have to if you’re scared, I was just teasing you.”

“...I know. I just didn’t want us to have to call someone else to do it.”

Adam’s brow furrows. “You know…”

“Yeah?”

“We don’t really have a super tall stepladder, but I’m pretty sure if I climbed up on your shoulders and you went up like, just the first step of it, I could probably reach. It might give me the last couple inches I need.”

“Is that… I dunno, safe?”

“I mean yeah, long as you hold onto me. I trust you.” Adam pauses. “Maybe wait until you’re a bit less shaky first though.”

Caleb snorts. “Yeah, I was planning to.”

A couple minutes and some deep breaths later, Caleb’s back on the stepladder, Adam on his shoulders.

“This is fine for you, right?” Adam bends down to ask.

“Yeah. Yeah, I’m good. The first step’s like, barely even off the ground and I have you to focus on so I’m good.”

“Good. That’s good.” Adam reaches up with the paintbrush. “Hey, I was right, I can reach now!”

“Oh  _ hell _ yeah.”

It’s a tedious process— they have to stop often to give Caleb’s shoulders a break, because while Adam isn’t all that heavy, Caleb’s shoulders do still start to hurt after a while— moving the ladder to a new spot is a bit of a process, and they have to be far more careful to avoid toppling over. Eventually, though, they make it to the last little corner of ceiling.

Adam leans down again to kiss the top of Caleb’s head, grinning.

“Y’know, we make a good team.”

Caleb grins back.

“We really do.”


End file.
